Afghanistan: Qatar, essential mediator with the Taliban – Franceinfo

If Qatar is well placed to play the intermediary, it is first of all because it very early made the choice to remain close to the Afghan Islamists. Even between 1996 and 2001, during the worst period of Taliban obscurantism, Qatar admittedly did not establish official diplomatic relations with Kabul (unlike what its neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates do), but he keeps in touch.
Then he welcomes on his soil the Taliban officials released from Guantanamo; and in 2013 – still with the blessing of the United States – it hosted in Doha the official representation of the Taliban, their “political office” which still exists and aims to become an embassy in the event of recognition of the regime. The Taliban have also made the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera their preferred channel of communication.

Qatar, this small country that speaks to everyone, is therefore both close to the Taliban and the Americans, who have their largest military base in the Middle East in the Emirate. And even if in recent years Doha has been accused of financing terrorism, of being an ally of Iran, of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood all over the Arab world, the link has never been broken with Washington. In 2019, under the presidency of Donald Trump, the two countries even signed very large contracts in oil, aeronautics and armaments.

The Qataris have therefore become natural and essential mediators. It was in Doha that the historic agreements of February 2020 on the departure of American soldiers from Afghanistan and the inter-Taliban discussions were signed. It is in Doha that 8,000 Afghans will be temporarily hosted. It is again in Doha that the delegations of Western countries, like France, come today to discuss with the Taliban. It is Doha which will partly manage the logistics of Kabul airport after the American withdrawal.

This summer, it is again from Doha that the head of the political bureau of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, joined Kandahar aboard a military plane of the Qatar Air Force.

#BREAKING: #Taliban released a video showing moment of arrival of its leader Mullah Baradar at #Kandahar. He arrived on-board A7-MAP, a C-17A of #Qatar Air Force. His arrival onboard the airplane is symbolic because #Qatar is behind all the chaos taking place in #Afghanistan now. pic.twitter.com/yzXJp08Pii

– Babak Taghvaee – Μπάπακ Τακβαίε – بابک تقوایی (@BabakTaghvaee) August 17, 2021

It is a risky bet to have it both ways. If the Taliban are overrun by the Islamic State or if they violate women’s rights too ostentatiously and end up severing ties with the international community, Doha obviously has a lot to lose.

Because the Qataris dream of being at the same table as China and Russia, which are placing their pawns in Afghanistan. They seek to gain legitimacy, to make their tiny state (which is no bigger than the Gironde) a leading diplomatic player on the international scene. This led them, for example, a few months ago to get involved in the process of democratic transition in Libya.

When we also have Iran and Turkey as allies, that requires a lot of political agility. But this is part of the all-round “soft power” strategy of the Emirate, which goes as much through the arrival of Messi at PSG as through the Taliban component.